A Moment in Time
by Ichiban Victory
Summary: When a spell goes awry, Zelgadis finds himself in a familiar yet completely different place. Short one-shot written for an A/Z challenge meant for nothing more than to amuse. Enjoy!


There was a vague recollection of fireworks and a jarring crash to the ground, but beyond that he knew of nothing else. Silence surrounded him and yet the world was spinning about madly. He almost dared not open his eyes fearing the sight he would see, provided he could see at all.

"What are you doing here?" A voice interrupted his thoughts, a rather alarmed feminine voice at that.

"Uh?" Zelgadis answered intelligently, finally opening his eyes. A tall woman with dark hair was towering over him.

"I said what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here!" The woman sounded almost frantic, yet she stooped down and gently helped Zelgadis to sit up. "She needs you." She stated, as if Zelgadis knew what she was talking about.

Zelgadis didn't, staring back at the woman in confusion. Something about her struck him as familiar, but he couldn't recall what it was. "And who are you?" he replied instead, not enjoying being told what to do.

The woman sighed. "You must have really knocked your head something awful." She shook her head but gave Zelgadis a grin anyway. "Look around you, what do you see?" She gestured to the room with an arm.

Zelgadis had been wondering about his surroundings so he did look around, noticing he was seated in the center of a large, circular room. Save for some tables and bookshelves along the walls, the room was rather barren. He then noticed the large magical circle etched into the floor. "It's a room for testing out spells..." This caused something to click. "I was here with Amelia!" He jerked to look up at the woman. "Where is she?"

"At last, he remembers," the woman shook her head, but then turned her focus back to Zelgadis. "She's still here, don't worry about that."

"But where? We were testing out a spell, then..." Zelgadis had subconsciously pounded his chest, but the lack of resistance caused him to look down. It didn't take a genius to notice that he was fully human. "It...it worked?"

"In a manner of speaking," the woman replied. "But that's not what's important. You're not supposed to be here!" She pulled Zelgadis to his feet, Zelgadis too astounded with his discovery to offer any resistance.

Zelgadis, still lost in his own world, whirled away from the woman. "Where is she? Where did Amelia go? I need to find her! She needs to know!" Without another thought he dashed from the room.

"Wait!" The woman raised a hand in protest, but too late. Zelgadis had already left the room.

Zelgadis stormed through the palace halls as if his life depended on it. None of the guards or palace servants batted an eye at this, which might have drawn Zelgadis' suspicions if he'd not done this many times before. He'd been staying in Saillune for quite a while now researching spells with Amelia's help. The biggest breakthrough had been when they'd finally uncovered a reversal spell, known to have been used by the Red Priest himself. It originally was intended for inanimate objects, but the two had worked with the spell to include living things.

This morning had been the fated day to finally test the spell, Zelgadis offering himself as the test subject since it was intended to reverse his chimera state. Amelia had taken him to a room tucked far away from the rest of the palace, neglected at that. He had meant to ask her about the room but had been too excited about the possibility of the spell working to give it much thought.

Zelgadis shook his head to clear his thoughts, realizing that it was no longer morning. In fact, it wasn't even midday! For all he knew it was the dead of night, as no light shone in from the outer windows. There seemed to be more guards posted about than normal as well... Zelgadis paid them little heed, continuing on to Amelia's room. He halted in his tracks, the woman from before planted in front of the door with her arms spread out. Only now did he notice she was wearing priestess robes.

"Why are you stopping me?" Zelgadis asked, clenching a fist. This woman hadn't made much of a first impression, but now she was just getting annoying.

The woman stood her ground, frowning down at Zelgadis. "You'd be wise not to go in there."

"So you tell me she needs me, only to keep me from going to her? Why?" Zelgadis glared up at the woman, none too thrilled to admit she was a great deal taller than he was.

"She won't understand if she sees you now." The woman answered cryptically.

"What's not to understand?" Zelgadis asked. "She's the one who did this, doesn't she deserve to see it worked? All of our efforts paid off!" Zelgadis dropped his arms to his sides. "Please, let me see her."

The woman also lowered her arms but shook her head. "I of course cannot stop you even if I wanted to. Go then." She stepped away from the door but continued to stare back at Zelgadis.

Zelgadis grumbled to himself about the odd woman, but quickly moved in front of the door. Given that it seemed to be late and he had no idea what Amelia would be up to, he gently knocked before opening the door and entering. "Amelia?"

"Who's there?" a small voice answered back. A young girl was seated on her bed rocking herself gently. She looked up at her unexpected visitor. "You're not Daddy." she replied simply but continued to look up at Zelgadis in curiosity.

Zelgadis froze in the doorway. Who was this child? And what was she doing in Amelia's room?

"You don't look like a guard. Did Daddy send you to keep me company?" The little girl had leaped from the bed and walked up to Zelgadis, still studying him intently. Her expression didn't show shock, joy, or even melancholy. She just looked at him with apathy.

"Uh," Zelgadis answered dumbly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude. I was looking for Princess Amelia." He started to back away back to the safety of the hall.

The little girl cocked her head. "That's me. Who are you? When is Daddy going to tell me a bedtime story?" She looked up at him, only then Zelgadis noticing the slight quaver in her voice.

"Amelia!" A voice shouted from the hall as an older girl stormed toward the room. Zelgadis jumped clear of the doorway as the girl didn't even slow down to avoid him. "Come on, Dad wants to talk to us."

The little girl glanced up to Zelgadis again, but then looked to the older girl. She nodded her head. "Is Mommy going to be there?"

This caused the older girl to pause, her seeming anger from entering completely gone. Tears formed in her eyes but she quickly shook her head and gave out a strange laugh. "I told you she can't! Stop asking that, okay? When will you understand she's gone!" Her last words came out choked.

"But I saw her!" the little girl pleaded.

The older girl gripped the younger girl by the wrist. "Stop talking nonsense. Now come on! Maybe Dad can finally talk sense into you."

The little girl was dragged along, but she still turned to look at Zelgadis, giving him a small wave in farewell as the two girls left the room. Zelgadis could only stare back.

As Zelgadis' mind reeled, the woman from before walked into the room and crossed her arms. She looked at him somewhat amused...if not for the sadness he saw in her eyes. "Figure it out yet?"

Zelgadis blinked, trying to sort out what he had just experienced. "But...but how is it possible? How did I end up here?"

"Good question," the woman replied. "My guess is that it had something to do with that spell. You might want to read over it again."

Zelgadis looked at the woman, finally realizing why she had seemed familiar. "You! You're...the late Crown Princess?" He looked as if he expected her to poof out of sight any second.

The woman nodded her head. "Ah, there's the smart man my little girl fell for. I was starting to doubt you." She smiled. "Yes, I am she, she is me, or rather she was me, if it's proper to say. I never was one for royal speech. Too formal."

"I'm starting to see where Amelia got some of her mannerisms...like being chatty." Zelgadis coughed. "But how am I seeing you? You're dead, aren't you?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes." The woman nodded.

"A manner? You're dead or you're not, aren't you?" Zelgadis crossed his arms, not sure if he liked this woman or not.

The woman frowned at Zelgadis. "As far as my beloved husband and daughters think, yes, I am dead. I can no longer embrace them in my arms, or share in teaching my daughters about the world around them. But I am far from gone. Even if they can't see or touch me any longer, I'm still here to watch over them."

"But Amelia said she saw you," Zelgadis replied, "What did she mean by that?"

The woman shook her head. "That was a mistake on my part, one I tried to prevent you from repeating. Little Amelia has always been sensitive, in fact she's constantly suffered for it since ghosts terrify her."

Zelgadis nodded his head, remembering all too well how Amelia still didn't react well to ghosts. He'd even lost sleep at times from her outbursts at night. "But wait, what do you mean you tried to prevent me from doing the same? I'm not dead!"

The woman shook her head. "No, but you're outside your body. Didn't it strike you as odd that you would be in this place, this time yet nobody saw you? That is why you don't belong here, why you need to return. She needs you, Zelgadis. Even now she fears you to be truly dead."

Zelgadis jerked back to attention. "But how? How can I reverse this?"

"You can't," she replied, "you just need to wake up to the situation. You cannot exist in two places at once, so decide whether to remain here unseen, or to return to my daughter's side where you belong."

Zelgadis suddenly felt a jerk, feeling himself being pulled. It was the most bizarre sensation he'd ever felt, even more than when he'd been changed into a chimera. He looked back to the woman, only to realize she was fading, as was the rest of the room. She seemed to be shouting something to him. Zelgadis did his best to understand.

"...trust her, she'll know what needs to be done!"

Zelgadis suddenly felt the air being forced from his lungs. He coughed violently in reaction, the world again spinning. Never had it been so painful to breathe, but never had it felt any better!

"Thank goodness!" A voice cried as Zelgadis felt a weight on his chest, but this time it wrapped him in warmth. He looked through bleary eyes to again see dark hair over him, his eyes not yet focused enough to focus on finer detail.

"Zelgadis-san, I thought I killed you!" the voice cried out again.

Zelgadis coughed some more, still finding it a bit painful to breathe. "What happened?" His vision finally cleared enough to see Amelia clinging to him tightly. He lifted a heavy arm to place over her shoulders to ease her shaking.

"It was awful," Amelia stifled her crying enough to reply. "Everything seemed to be going well with the spell but then you just collapsed! By the time I got to you your heart had stopped and you were so cold! It was awful!"

Zelgadis shushed her only to notice an odd coppery taste in his mouth. He brought his free hand up to his mouth to wipe it, becoming alarmed to see blood on his fingertips. "Amelia?"

Amelia lifted her head to look at Zelgadis, the scratches around her mouth very easy to see. She suddenly found herself sitting upright since Zelgadis had changed position. She didn't resist when Zelgadis cupped her chin, then gently lifted her hands.

"What did you have to do?" Zelgadis was shocked to see how badly abused her hands and wrists were, but then he recalled the pressure he had felt on his chest. He nearly fell backward. "You, you had to..."

Amelia nodded, "Of course, I had to perform CPR on you. Resurrection is useless if your heart's stopped! I'm just thankful it worked. She winced slightly but still caught Zelgadis up in an embrace. "I was foolish to attempt the spell."

Zelgadis smiled. "Not at all, Amelia. It did work...in a sense. We just need to perfect it."

Amelia looked up into Zelgadis' eyes. "You want to try it again? But what if I really do kill you?"

Zelgadis shook his head. "You won't, trust me. You have a good head on your shoulders, I know you can do this." He smiled again to ease her fears.

Amelia studied Zelgadis in silence for a moment. "Are you sure about this?"

Zelgadis gave a nod. "Or I could wander aimlessly for another ten years."

"No!" Amelia shouted, but shrank back when her voice bounced off the walls. "I, I mean that's okay, you don't have to do that." She smiled weakly. "Give me some time to recover from this, then we'll go over the spell again. Is that alright, Zelgadis-san?"

Zelgadis nodded again. "As I said, I trust you."

Amelia again paused to look at Zelgadis in wonder.

"Is something wrong?" Zelgadis asked, not used to Amelia being silent.

"No," Amelia shook her head, "You just sounded like my mother there for a moment." Amelia finally smiled. "Come on, lets go get something to eat. That spell took a lot out of me!"

Zelgadis grinned as he followed after Amelia, glad to see her being her usual cheerful self again. He glanced back into the room briefly as if expecting to see someone there. No one was, but he'd never felt the presence leave. "Thanks," he uttered, before continuing after Amelia.

_Author's notes: Yes, I need to be working on my other story. I'm still sorting out everything in my head, but it's being reduced to a crawl courtesy of uni and all of the READING homework I have. Reading over 40 pages for just one class alone is really time-consuming... So don't think I've abandoned Here With Me, I really do want to finish it, I just want to finish it properly._

_Now that that's out of the way, this is the end result of another A/Z challenge but I didn't have time to enter when it was still open (again, courtesy of uni). I kept brushing aside the idea I'd had, but it wouldn't leave me alone! I finally had a morning between classes where I had time to write it all out in one go, so that is what this is. On the one hand I like it (it's nice for Zelgadis to get a glimpse of Amelia's childhood), but on the other I wish I'd fleshed it out more. I chose not to since if Zelgadis had stuck around any longer in the past, he would be dead in the present... o_O Logic never gives my mind a break!_

_So enjoy, review if you feel so inspired, be inspired, fun stuff like that! Oh! And be on the lookout for Slayers Revolution/Evolution-R! FUNimation is now uploading the subtitled version online, but I can't get the player to work. It hasn't stopped others from enjoying the new seasons though! I'm personally really excited for the DVDs to come out. I want to hear all of the original dub actors again!_

_P.S. Anyone else bothered Amelia's mother was never given a name? (Or at least Hajime Kanzaka has yet to reveal it.) I didn't want to make anything up, so I didn't._

_-Ichiban Victory_


End file.
